happy birthday to Williams Belle

YAMAKASI FONDATION

 

http://www.yamakasi-foundation.org/

Find out more on the YAMAKASI fondation on the website

words from Williams Belle Yamakasi

Words of Wisdom: Williams Belle

“The most important motivation in Art du Déplacement, in my eyes, apart from becoming as strong as San Goku (Dragon Ball) …, is to try and be a good human being in life.”
A long time ago, a rather special group of people came together in France and created something that has dominated my life for the last 8 years. It was the same as what people had been doing for countless generations, and at the same time it was absolutely unique.
I’ve had the privilege of working with a couple of these people over the years and whilst meeting them in person is guaranteed to be an enlightening experience, for the most part, they don’t say a huge amount online. When one of them writes publicly about their history and thoughts on the essence of their motivation over the years, you can be sure that it’s worth reading.
The spirit of what defined the movement is something that has always inspired me, informing not only how I interact with traceurs, but how I try to live my life. On a good day at least.
In the next couple of months, Julie Angel will be publishing her research into the history of everything that is parkour. In-depth interviews with many of the key players in the discipline will undoubtedly reveal more insights into the spirit that lay at the heart of parkour and I can’t wait to read it. For now, I recommend taking a moment to read the piece recently posted by Williams Belle on his Facebook page. I felt inspired; I trust that you will feel the same.
I’m pleased to be meeting up soon with Châu BELLE, Yann HNAUTRA and Laurent PIEMONTESI in Milan for the “ORIGINES” Workshop.
They are the ones with whom I have developed my training methods, the Yamakasi way of thinking, the culture of effort and the aspiration to be fair in life. Who I am today as a YAMAKASI, is partly thanks to them and partly thanks to my mother, my model.
I also have a lot of respect and esteem for David BELLE and Sébastien FOUCAN, the 2 first out-of-norm people I’ve trained with in my childhood.
Then, there’s Charles PERRIERE, Malik DIOUF, Guylain N’GUBA BOYEKE. I’ve shared with them unforgettable moments of happiness that made me who I am. They are now the founders of the ADD movement (Art du Déplacement), Parkour and Freerun and they gave me a new mind opening.
In addition to that, I can never thank enough all my childhood friends who supported us and participated to the fame of YAMAKASI.
At the beginning of the 90s I started training clinging along to my two older brothers Châu and Phung BELLE, my cousin David BELLE, Sébastien FOUCAN and friends, in the forest of Sarcelles. They were exercising to get stronger and were playing at jumping obstacles that would be on their way. It was intense.
We’d then arrive on a children’s game park in which there was a boat-shaped structure children could climb on. There was a distance jump on it, 2,57 meters from the ground (or so I thought, but I was tiny then) that friends were trying to jump. I felt I had to do it too to face my fear. Considering the obstacle, my brothers and my cousin went underneath, to catch me “in case anything would happen”…
It was on that day that I did my first “Yamakasi” jump. I suddenly realised one could overcome his own apprehension and fears. I thus found my first way to answering obstacles in life, I was 9 years old.
At that time, there weren’t any Yamakasi teachers or teaching, not even a name for the practice. So, I’d often train by my own and I’d take example on my mother, my model of generosity, courage, determination and abnegation.
Whenever I had the opportunity of sharing trainings with my family and my friends, I’d listen and I’d watch carefully. I still train this way.
After a couple of years of practicing, in 1996, my friends and my cousin decided to start an association, in order to spread the discipline they called “L’Art du Déplacement” and let people know about it. Without hesitation, I got involved in the creation of this discipline and of the group “Yamakasi” (9 of us) when they asked me to. I was 14 by then, and the only thing I wanted was train all day and eat rice.
When Guylain explained to me that Yamakasi meant “Strong Spirit” in his mother tongue, I thought they had found the perfect word to define the spirit of the discipline.
In 1997, media talk about us (newspaper, tv) and we get to show what we do. Then, for various reasons the group splits up, which puts an end to the association.
I carried on training as usual…
Days would go by and then, together with 7 Yamakasi pioneer members, we decided to get back together to live from our passion and to reorganise the association “l’Art du Déplacement” so we could share our experience.
(oh, spelling mistakes, I should have paid more attention in class. School can be boring but it’s a life time investement).
That’s about it for me.
ADD is one of my techniques for staying in good health, for developing self-confidence and for reconnecting with myself. This enables me to “work on myself” which I think is essential, if not mandatory, to progress in life.
When starting this type of practice, don’t be scared of depression, anxiety, going through failures and tripping because it will happen.
What’s important is to develop patience and determination, to maintain a positive attitude when facing obstacles the best you can.
The most important motivation in ADD, in my eyes, apart from becoming as strong as San Goku (Dragon Ball) …, is to try and be a good human being in life.
Although ADD is an art expressing freedom, some rules exist so it always stays that way.
Respect of yourself and of your surrounding is fundamental.
Don’t be scared of succeeding !

Williams Belle performing

Williams Belle from Martin Yeung on Vimeo.